At 29, Mr. Carlucci goes to Albany

Youngest member of the state Senate says job as town clerk can help him navigate Capitol

By STEPHANIE LEE Staff writer

Published
6:00 am EST, Monday, January 3, 2011

David Carlucci, a Rockland County Democrat, is the youngest state senator in the 2011 session at age 29. He appears in Clarkstown Town Hall, where he served as town clerk. (Philip Kamrass/Times Union)

David Carlucci, a Rockland County Democrat, is the youngest state senator in the 2011 session at age 29. He appears in Clarkstown Town Hall, where he served as town clerk. (Philip Kamrass/Times Union)

Photo: PHILIP KAMRASS

Photo: PHILIP KAMRASS

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David Carlucci, a Rockland County Democrat, is the youngest state senator in the 2011 session at age 29. He appears in Clarkstown Town Hall, where he served as town clerk. (Philip Kamrass/Times Union)

David Carlucci, a Rockland County Democrat, is the youngest state senator in the 2011 session at age 29. He appears in Clarkstown Town Hall, where he served as town clerk. (Philip Kamrass/Times Union)

Photo: PHILIP KAMRASS

At 29, Mr. Carlucci goes to Albany

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CLARKSTOWN -- A black-and-white photograph hangs high in the office of Town Clerk David Carlucci. The year is roughly 1992, and Carlucci and his sixth-grade classmates, touring the state Capitol, have paused to pose on the Great Western Staircase.

Carlucci remembers being blown away by "the history, the idea of this is how government works."

Albany evidently made an impression on him. At 29, Carlucci is set to become the youngest state senator in New York.

Carlucci, a Democrat, defeated Rockland County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef, a prominent 61-year-old Republican leader in this overwhelmingly Democratic county. This month, Carlucci will take the 38th Senate District seat formerly held by the late Thomas Morahan, a Republican.

This week, Carlucci will be thrown into a notoriously dysfunctional chamber where Republicans have retaken a narrow 32-30 majority, and the state is confronting a looming budget deficit estimated at upward of $9 billion. But those are the usual challenges. Carlucci also faces a four-hour commute to an unfamiliar city, a staff to fill, and a wedding that will take place days after he's sworn in.

Most of all, the pressure is on to translate his experience as town clerk to the state Senate level.

"The residents in my district are really demanding a different type of governing, and we've got to put people above politics," Carlucci said. "It's desperately needed and it's something I'm committed to doing."

When he ran for town clerk a second time -- the first try occurred a year after he graduated from Cornell University -- Carlucci, then 24, unseated a 28-year incumbent. In his three terms since 2005, he has digitized hundreds of thousands of records, some dating back to the 18th century, and certified thousands more births, deaths and marriages for Clarkstown's population of 82,650.

The Senate's young generation also includes Republicans Greg Ball, 33, and Lee Zeldin, 30, and Democrat Daniel Squadron, 31. Carlucci, who turns 30 in April, doesn't think age determines success in Albany.

"A lot of people in the state Senate that are making these laws have never experienced the actual nitty-gritty of what it means when you sign off on a law," Carlucci said over a recent plateful of poached eggs and toast at Main Street Cafe in New City, a town hamlet. "Clerk is a great role for that because it's really the hub of local government, and you see the things that no one ever pays attention to, or wants to."

That involves signing death certificates for friends and acquaintances. And knowing funeral directors on a first-name basis.

"You know that any day could be the day," he said. "So you might as well do what you can while you can, and get the things done that you want."

More joyful are the nearly 700 marriages that Carlucci has performed as a marriage officer. He has married couples in the local mall, after work and before spouses travel to serve in the military.

But Rockland County Judge Victor Alfieri will marry Carlucci and his high school sweetheart, Lauren Grossberg, a 28-year-old elementary school teacher. The wedding will take place on Jan. 15 -- just 10 days after the kickoff of the new legislative session.

Carlucci wrote his own vows and knows them by heart. "I will love you through the good and the bad, through the joy and the sorrow," he recited. "I will try to be understanding and trust in you completely."

More Information

Young state senators

Franklin D. Roosevelt, in 1910, won a seat in the New York state Senate at the ripe age of 28. In addition to David Carlucci, here are a few of the younger members of the 2011 state Senate:

Greg Ball, 33, 40th Senate District (R): Born Sept. 16, 1977, Ball is a Pawling native who formerly represented the 99th Assembly District. He'll claim the seat that Sen. Vincent Leibell gave up to run for Putnam County executive. Leibell has pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges.

Daniel Squadron, 31, 25th Senate District (D): In 2008, the then-28-year-old Yale University graduate handily defeated incumbent Martin Connor in the Democratic primary. Connor had been in office since 1978 -- before Squadron was born. He now represents Brooklyn.

Lee Zeldin, 30, 3rd Senate District (R): Zeldin, who was born in 1980, defeated incumbent Brian Foley in November. In 2004, he was sworn in to the New York State Bar at just 23 years old -- the youngest attorney in the state at the time.

-- Stephanie Lee

"Coffee?" asked a waiter.

Main Street Cafe, an all-American diner across the street from Clarkstown's town hall, is a favorite of Carlucci's. He is more accustomed, however, to grabbing lunch at the town house he shares with his fiancee, a five-minute walk from the office. Five minutes in the other direction takes him to the house where he grew up. His mother, Barbara, runs a local chapter of ARC, formerly the Association for Retarded Citizens, while his father, Richard, is an advertising representative for Clipper magazine.

Albany is not quite as close by. A one-way drive to the capital from New City spans two hours and 120 miles. Carlucci's 2002 Honda Civic has already logged 140,000 miles.

Carlucci, who normally rises at 6 a.m., isn't fazed. Neither is Grossberg, who is happy handling the bulk of the wedding planning. Though she acknowledged they'll "have more phone conversations than face-to-face conversations, he's always cared about people in his district. I don't feel like it's going to be such a big change."

Carlucci said he plans to stay in hotels during session weeks, a setup he figures will be more flexible than an apartment. He came to Albany for the Senate's special session in December, his first visit since 2002. He enjoyed the Miss Albany Diner, but ate a merely "reasonable" turkey sandwich in the Capitol's cafeteria.

Slowing his search is the fact that he doesn't know how big his team can be. The Democrats must slash their payroll by one-third to close a roughly $10 million budget gap, which will result in layoffs for at least 200 staffers this month.

Meanwhile, applications have flooded in from all walks of life -- waiters, librarians and new-minted college graduates, as well as others with more conventional legislative experience. "There's people that, maybe in this climate, who maybe never thought about government work before, threw it in there for the heck of it," Carlucci said.

But he'll miss his first staff, the half-dozen employees in the town clerk's office -- all women with a couple of years on him. "I could be his mother," principal clerk typist Maureen Landro, 54, confided in a stage whisper.

Then she smiled a motherly smile. "We wish him the best of luck."

Stephanie Lee can be reached at 454-5057 or by e-mail at slee@timesunion.com.